PRESS RELEASE
INQUIRY BASED SCIENCE EDUCATION (IBSE) TO ACHIEVE AN INCLUSIVE AND EQUITABLE QUALITY EDUCATION AND PROMOTE LIFELONG OPPORTUNITIES
FOR ALL
PARIS, Thursday, 7 April 2016 – Inquiry Based Science Education (IBSE) which encompasses collaboration, teamwork and a bottom-up approach must be treated as a priority area in the education of developing countries.
This agenda was recommended in a forum on ‘Embracing the Future – Improving the Quality of Evidence-Based Science Education’ at UNESCO in Paris on 5th April 2016. The forum was organised by the International Science, Technology and Innovation Centre (ISTIC) for South-South cooperation under the auspices of UNESCO in collaboration with the office of the Permanent Delegation of Malaysia to UNESCO.
The approach to achieve this goal is through a synergistic collaboration and making ISTIC a platform to strategise and disseminate the agenda to UNESCO member states.
The quintessence of IBSE is knowledge building via exploration, experimentation and discussion. Through its framework, science education is tailored to be learner centred rather than teacher centred. In this regard, students’ or learners’ autonomy is highly encouraged.
As a result, students versed in this pedagogy are more inquisitive, learning the ‘why’ and
‘how’ and not just the ‘what’.
In the conventional approach of teaching, the teacher focuses on giving information, and the learners just receive it. Through IBSE, teachers need to be facilitators of learning. They are responsible to guide their students to explore the subject with a curious, creative, and open mind.
Students practising IBSE can be more actively involved in the construction of knowledge by having a two-way communication with their teachers.
The forum was moderated Dato’ Sri Dr. Noorul Ainur Mohd Nur, President of the UNESCO Natural Science Commission. The speakers were: H.E. Dr. Souad Abdelrazig Mohamed Saeed, Federal Minister of Education Sudan also as ISTIC Governing Board Member; Dr.
Nadia Alhasani, Dean of Student Life, The Petroleum Institute, Abu Dhabi also as ISTIC Governing Board Member; Dr. David Jasmin, Director of the La main a la pate Foundation;
Ms. Yuri Belfali, Head of Division, Early Childhood and Schools, Directorate for Education and Skills, OECD; Ms. Julia Heiss, Programme Specialist, Section of Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship, UNESCO; and Dato’ Dr. Samsudin Tugiman, Director of ISTIC.
Around 150 delegates and representatives of the Permanent Delegations of UNESCO, senior officials of the French Ministry of Education and staff of UNESCO Education and Natural Sciences sector participated in the forum which saw the promotion of IBSE as the best methodology to stimulate and inculcate an inquisitive and creative instinct in the young to ensure they become rational and discerning citizens in facing global challenges.
The Forum was co-officiated by the Minister of Education Malaysia; the Hon. Dato’ Seri Mahdzir Khalid and the Director-General of UNESCO, H.E. Irina Bokova.
Seated from left to right (center) : Minister of Education Malaysia Dato’ Seri Mahdzir Khalid, Director-General of UNESCO, Her Excellency Irina Bokova and Dato’ Sri Dr. Noorul Ainur Mohd Nur, President of the UNESCO Natural Science Commission
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Corporate Communication Unit Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation Phone: 03-8885 8141, Fax: 03-8890 3092 Email: [email protected]
